A little stream of conscious writing.
Which you can tell by the lack of a real ending... But it was good to just write something for a change!
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“I had a dream last night that I was saving elephants,” Josh said.
“You mean like saving the whales?” Adam asked. "Were you making bumper stickers?"
They only met now once every couple of weeks or so for what used to be the nightly “after work” pint at a local pub. The conversation still flowed though as easily as it did when they were roommates, having each just moved to Boston almost two decades earlier.
"No, I wasn't part of a campaign. I was really saving elephants, from like eminent danger. I was there with them, in the jungle. We were running and I was leading them. I was saving them."
“From what?”
“I’m not really sure. I think at first I thought I was trying to save a whole bunch of them from men, poachers I guess, but then I was pretty sure that I was actually helping one elephant get away from another elephant.”
“Like a bully elephant?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Well, that makes no sense,” Adam said.
“That makes no sense? The part about there being a bully?”
“Yeah.”
“I live in a city, in the United States, but somehow I’m in the jungle somewhere saving elephants and that’s perfectly okay, but the fact that I was saving one from a bully seems odd to you?”
“Well, yeah. You could have been at a zoo. We don’t live that far from Franklin Park Zoo. Maybe you were there.”
“Saving elephants?”
“Right. That’s not that far fetched.”
“Of course not.
“But, a bully elephant?” Adam said, not really asking a question. “Have you ever heard of such a thing? I mean, I’ve watched a lot of shit on the Animal Planet and I’ve never heard of one elephant being a bully. A bear maybe - they can get quite aggressive with each other.”
“But not elephants?”
“Nope. I mean, I could be wrong, but I really don’t think so.”
“Okay. Great. I’m glad we cleared that up,” Josh said, motioning to the bartender for another round. “If I dream about another animal bully tonight, I’ll try to make sure that it’s a bear.”
“Well don’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re afraid of bears. Everyone knows that. And then you probably won’t try to save the bear that’s being bullied.”
“I’m not afraid of bears.”
“Everyone knows you’re afraid of bears, Josh.”
“Everyone?”
“Everyone,” Adam answered. “Come one, you wrote a short story once about a fear of being attacked by a bear at a camp site.”
“Yeah, but I never said that the character in that was me.”
“We all knew, Josh. Everybody knows.”
“It’s not like I’m paralyzed with fear the whole time that I’m camping. I just thought it would make an interesting story. I actually really like most aspects of camping.”
“Just not the potential for running into a bear,” Adam added.
“Well, yeah. No. I mean, of course, that part is something you have to be wary of. Hey, at least I go camping and get out of the city once and a while. That’s more than you can say.”
“I don’t like any aspect of camping though. Never said I did.”
“Sitting and relaxing. Sipping on a drink. Shooting the shit next to a roaring fire. How can you not like that?”
“Look behind you,” Adam told him, pointing to the fireplace on the other side of the pub. “Last time I checked we’ve been sitting here for the better part of an hour relaxing and shooting the shit.”
“Fine. Let’s not talk about camping anymore.”
“Starting to worry about bears?”
“Funny. So, what do you usually dream about?” Josh asked his friend.
“My fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Monahan.”
“Nice. And knowing you, probably really creepy.”
“She was nice. I got my first erection because of her.”
“Okay, let’s talk about bears again.”
“Ha ha!” Adam said as he downed the rest of his first beer and reached for the second. “Hey, you’re the one who started talking about dreams.”


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